J. cool:-) For me its the contrasts - the train and the chimneys create more subtle contrasts. The shot feels moodier, spookier, more sinister as a result. The terrain is darker and thus less knowable, its riskier. I enjoy the arrangement of space in the darker shot too (its a bottom-left top-right thing). The train pulls my attention front-stage yet simultaneously my eye is drawn to the white columns on the horizon (Athens possibly?). The pale porcelain of the chimneys (which pleases me very much) renders the sky more vacuous/spacious - darker. Having said that the irony of a dead power station contrasted with a sky lit up by the lights of the city it once powered is not lost on me either:-) The darker space in front of the building also works for me - here we only get an impression of the size of the building; we have to imagine its reality - like the hulking bow of a decrepid rusting oil tanker looming suddnely out of a fog over your little row-boat - spooky. Also, with teh darker guy we're nto sure if anybody's home, whilst in teh brighter shot it looks like there is. I prefer not to know. I'm also quite preared to admit that as the colours in the darker shot are more "classical" that its in fact me who's the romantic (if there is at all)! I still vote for the darker guy: (1) contrasts, (2) yellow train, (3) porcelain.

"The other shot is so dream-like & surreal we're almost cajouled in to a nostalgia for the lovable friendly plant-eating dinosaurs with brains the size of peas.... etc etc ("bourgeois romanticism" anyone?). "

Ah, but Ivor.. I protest. I know nothing about .. well, generally everything. I didn't even know what this place was so no pre-concieved ideas were formed. Surreal - yes it's so, but hardly dreamlike and friendly.. more the monsterous kind of surreal that eats at you in nightmares.

Battersea power station, a great landmark in SW London. Perfect the choice of night time.

Iv

23-Mar-2005 13:36

for what its worth, i prefer the other (non-flash) one & here's the why(/whim) - realism and all its various slings'n'arrows. The other shot is so dream-like & surreal we're almost cajouled in to a nostalgia for the lovable friendly plant-eating dinosaurs with brains the size of peas.... etc etc ("bourgeois romanticism" anyone?). this was a POWER STATION baby; the nasty-yellow train-lights remind us of that as it passes, just like time, which brings us back to the building.... :-)

Falcone (and anyone else), this is in London. It's a pretty famous icon of apocolyptic, industrial modernity and has been used (as Asche and tt pointed out) in album covers for 40 years! It hasn't been active for many years and is a terrible state of disrepair. There have been many abortive plans to do something with it over the years but there seems to be a lot of activity there now. It's actually very difficult to get a good, unobstructed view of it (I had to extend the tripod to 7 feet and point it over a wall and hope for the best).

Although I like both shots, the flash makes all the difference.. brings out the textures in the clouds - that night sky. The looming smokestacks, the perspective, and the intense lit sky all add to a very surreal feeling.
Spectacular .. in every sense..